Symphonic scores which employ a timpani set in many instances require that the timpanist change the tuning of certain of his drums at different points in the score in order to achieve a desired musical effect. To achieve this in the past timpanists have had to change the pitch of one or more of their drums during a performance on the basis of training and past experience relating to required tension settings for a given timpani in order to achieve a desired tonal effect. This is quite arduous, highly subject to error due to the fact that audible retuning has to be performed in a background setting of musical accompaniment by other members of the orchestra, and leaves much to be desired. To overcome this problem the present invention was devised.